Non-standard English & dialect forms

Some poetry from different cultures, rather than using Standard English, uses the non-standard English and/or dialect forms of the particular cultural background from which it comes. Read the opening of The Song of the Banana Man by Evan Jones, a poem set in Jamaica:

The Song of the Banana Man
Touris, white man, wipin his face,
Met me in Golden Grove market place.
He looked at m’ol’ clothes brown wid stain,
And soaked right through wid de Portlan rain,
Has cas his eye, turn up his nose,
He says, ‘You’re a beggar man, I suppose?’
He says, ‘boy, get some occupation,
Be of some value to your nation.’
I said, ‘By God and dis big right han
You mus recognize a banana man.
‘Up in de hills, where de streams are cool,
An mullet an janga swim in de pool,
I have ten acres of mountain side,

An a dainty-foot donkey dat I ride,
Four Gros Michel, an four Lacatan,
Some coconut trees, and some hills of yam,
An I pasture on dat very same lan
Five she-goats an a big black ram,
Dat, by God an dis big right han
Is de property of a banana man.

What do you notice about the way in which the poem is written and the effect it creates?

• It is written in a language that captures the Jamaican dialect.
• It uses some unfamiliar vocabulary, e.g. ‘janga ’ is a crayfish; ‘Gros Michel ’ and ‘Lacatan‘ are varieties of banana.
• It creates a strong sense of the voice of the speaker.
• It clearly sets the poem in a culture other than that represented by ‘Standard English’.

Sometimes a poet might use a mixture of Standard English and a dialect form in order to emphasise a particular idea. For example, in his poem Half-Caste, John Agard mixes West Indian patois with Standard English. Look at the following extract from the poem.

Half-Caste
Excuse me
standing on one leg
I’m half-caste
Explain yuself
wha yu mean
when yu say half-caste
yu mean when picasso
mix red an green
is half-caste canvas?
explain yuself
wha yu mean
when yu say half-caste
yu mean when light an shadow
mix in de sky
is a half-caste weather?
well in dat case
england weather
nearly always half-caste

Why do you think Agard mixes dialect form with Standard English in this poem?
By using this technique he emphasises the theme of his poem – that of being ‘Half-Caste’ – the half dialect, half Standard English emphasises this. It also gives a sense of the dual ‘voice’ that the poet possesses.